Build Thread: TKERacer619's 600gal SPS Tank

[tkeracer619]

Hey everyone :wavehand:, I finally took the plunge and bought the largest tank I can fit into the house without knocking down a wall! It is a 8'x4'x31"H glass tank made by Miracles. This thread will document the setup and routines of my new system which will primarily be stocked with SPS corals, Angelfish, Tangs, Anthias, and a few Butterflies. Some other hard corals will likely find their way into the aquarium but my plan is to create a non traditional scape of large coral colonies. I find many tanks are loaded with many wonderful corals but they don't have room to grow. I will give them the room they deserve by limiting my selection to a handful of my favorites.

For those who may not know me my name is Mark and I am a Saltwater Aquarium addict... :fun4: In November of 2012 I was voted Reefer of the Month! I also have a build thread for a 360 gallon reef.

If you want to see what is going on right now in and around the aquarium take a look at the live stream! It's active between 10:30am and 1:00am MST. Camera is an Axis P1365.

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[tkeracer619]

Lets Talk About the Setup in General.

Lets Talk About the Setup in General.

The aquarium will be in a room that measures roughly 30 by 18 feet, it has a decorative concrete slab floor. The display room will feature couches, TVs, a pool table, and a wet bar among other things.

The display will be finished in laminate wood paneling and surrounded on both sides by matching cabinetry. The aquarium has two large corner overflows which will determine the depth of the cabinets and they will form a false wall creating the appearance that the display is 8'x3'x31". Lighting and powerheads will have two electrical circuits (20a & 15a) located away from moisture in the top left cabinet.

Currently I have tanks all over the place in the display room but the ones I am keeping will end up in the basement one level down. The basement room will also serve as a dedicated filtration room. I will be using the Berlin method of reef keeping, it works for me. The display will remain somewhat minimalist while close to 2000lbs of live rock will live in the filtration room. Metal Halide, T5 Flourescent, LEDs, Biopellets, a Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup, a GFO/Carbon Reactor, and a massive skimmer will be utilized. The filtration room will have use of three 20a circuits. All circuits will eventually be backed up by a whole house automatic start natural gas generator.

Here is a scale pic of the tank sitting as I imagine it. This is still an early rendering.

 

[tkeracer619]

Lets Talk About Flow

Lets Talk About Flow

I have run this through my head a few times and have settled on a dual island rockscape. I hope to be able to create a massive amount of flow around these two islands by using Vortech MP60QD and MP40QD pumps. Since this display had large corner overflows I plan on using dry boxes inside the overflows that allow me to keep all of the Vortech dry sides out of view.

The current plan is to use 4 MP60QD and 2 MP40QD pumps. In the following image you can see the current paths I hope to create. The pumps will be set to alternate once ever 5 or so minutes between pump set 1(purple flow pattern)and 2(cyan flow pattern). Once per hour all pumps will come on.

 

[tkeracer619]

The Tank in its Original Home and Prep for Removal.

The Tank in its Original Home and Prep for Removal.

The tank was purchased fully stocked and running. Some livestock will find a new home. In an effort to minimize losses coral and fish were put into buckets and sent to either be re-homed or held for later.

I brought a 15' Uhaul, two 5'x9' trailers, 20 buckets, 20 27gal totes, two 150gal rubbermaid stock tanks, 11 suction cups, a 8x4x1 pallet, and 4 1000lb hydraulic lift carts to move this tank. Moving a tank this size, especially one made of glass and stocked is not an easy job.

My girlfriends commentary... :lol: It's a gentle foot and a half long Snowflake.

There was a lot of sand in this tank! I am super tired of scooping by this point!!! ...there was like 2000lbs of it.

HAH! Done!

Anyone think this guy is reef safe?

The struggle is real!

 

[tkeracer619]

It's Time to Move!

It's Time to Move!

Stuff is ready, tank is ready, time to move! Notice there isn't video or pics of the hard part (everyone was occupied). The tank weighs about 1600lbs empty.

Here is most of the "other" stuff. There is a nice sump, a 150gal stock tank full of rock, and a few other misc stuff missing from the image.

I had to remove this thing. It was in my way.

Here we are at my house. Fence gone: Check, Deck railing cut off: Check, huge tank on a trailer that needs to be lifted up: check.

Secured and lifted!

This is why I needed to take off the trailer gate...

Straight shot onto the carts (onto a 8x4 sheet of ply ), lift to stand height that is already in place, on 3 take the door down and PUUUUUUUSH.

Easy as pie.

My buddy Shane, he also make an appearance in my last build thread about this time. How on earth is his luck this good!

 

[tkeracer619]

Home Sweet Home!

Home Sweet Home!

Home sweet home! She's on the stand square :celeb1: but not in the final resting place. That is for another day :hammer:

Easy enough, it only took 26 hours of intense labor :lmao:

 

[benihana]

Impressive! This will be a fun build to follow



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[phk36]

I am guessing the tank is on a slab ? That's one huge move looking forward to the future

 

[L8Braker]

Keep us updated that is a cool tank.

 

[Uncle Luke]

dis gon be good

 

[tkeracer619]

Impressive! This will be a fun build to follow

Thanks, It should be a fun project and I hope to be able to share it with RC. I'm hoping to start adding livestock within about 2-3 months. Hoping to get water in it by next week sometime. I won't get plumbing done for a while though, it's going to be a challenge as you guys will soon see . I love a good challenge!

I am guessing the tank is on a slab ? That's one huge move looking forward to the future

Yup, it's on a decorative finished concrete slab. Not sure how thick but it should be at least 4". On the other side of the room I have had about 1000 gallons and 1500lbs of rock on it without breaking a sweat for about 2.5 years. This tank will be less than that since the rock and filtration will be in the basement.

Keep us updated that is a cool tank.

Thanks, I will!

dis gon be good

Thanks , I'll do my best! This one is for the long haul. No corner cutting!

 

[McPuff]

Wow, I've never had to move anything that big! Definitely a huge feat. What did you do with all the livestock, rock, sand, etc.? And how do you plan to move the tank to its final spot? This should be a cool build for sure!

 

[CafeReef]

dat skimmer tho... looking forward to this one. I applaud your drive sir!

 

[tkeracer619]

Wow, I've never had to move anything that big! Definitely a huge feat. What did you do with all the livestock, rock, sand, etc.? And how do you plan to move the tank to its final spot? This should be a cool build for sure!

The tank and stand were a beast to move, the tank weighs something like 1,600lbs. The stand probably weighs in around 900.

The sand is in 27gal totes with water on my back porch. The rock is in a 150gal stock tank with a powerhead and skimmer. The livestock went one of 3 places. I filled my invert and coral QT with hard corals and my 100gal holding tank with a few fish. Two others are keeping the other livestock, the corals and livestock that isn't compatible with my future plans will be re-homed.

I will be using the hydraulic carts and I-Beams to move the tank into its final position. Some of the stuff I want to do is just easier if it isn't up against the wall. Getting it into the house was the easiest part of the move but it did take a lot of thought and prep to make it happen smoothly.

dat skimmer tho... looking forward to this one. I applaud your drive sir!

:lol: I was wondering when someone would notice! It is a RK2 Systems skimmer. It's 80 inches tall, is powered by a venturi, has automatic wash down, and is supposedly rated for 1000 gallons. The model number is RK2-1000 which is an old part number. The current equivalent is the RK2-10AC. It is designed to take about 10 gallons a minute, I plan on feeding it with a large Biopellet Reactor. At 10gpm it has a dwell time of 2 minutes. I have used them before and they do work though I am not sure the rating is completely accurate. Time will tell.

I plan on using my current skimmer which is a Precision Marine Bullet XL-1 with an Askoll 1500 until bioload has increased beyond it's capacity. I feel like the RK2 skimmers needs some serious bioload to be stable.

 

[sfsuphysics]

whoo boy looks like it weighs a few pounds, doesn't look like the suction cups on there would allow enough people to hold it

 

[tkeracer619]

whoo boy looks like it weighs a few pounds, doesn't look like the suction cups on there would allow enough people to hold it

Yeah, normally I would avoid Harbor Freight like the plague but in this case there was no way to lift the tank so it didn't matter if the cups were junk. All we had to do was slide the tank, the hydraulic carts did the lifting. Cris at Aquatic Art Inc was nice enough to lend me two heavy duty suction cups and I bought 9 junkers from HF (3 of which broke during the move). This cost a lot less than renting enough cups for people to push. Even if you had enough people and cups to physically lift the tank it wouldn't be safe, the momentum would push right through you and someone would likely get seriously hurt or killed!

I built the 10'x4'x1' pallet with a 3/4" ply top so we could safely slide the tank onto it, the carts didn't lift high enough on their own. Once lifted to the exact height we strapped the pallet to the stand in such a way it wouldn't move when we slid the tank onto it. Once the tank was in place we moved the stand away and lowered the carts slowly, one side at a time.

We then slid the tank and pallet together onto the trailer. I had made two 8' wood angles out of 1x3 lumber so the pressure from straps holding the tank down would be distributed and then wrapped the tank in 3/4 insulation.

Once at my house we used my neighbors driveway (that he just installed) to back up to my deck (which I had to cut the railing off), and through the fence (which we were in process of replacing). The trailer barely fit but we were able to muscle it all into place. The trailer needed to be raised up which I did one block at a time. I secured the trailer to the deck with 4 straps and supported the trailer with a railroad tie under the back, 2x12 squares under the tires, jack stands under a cross member, and my floor jack under the tongue for backup. It was solid as a rock.

Once lined up it went onto the carts that had a layer of 3/4 ply across them for easy sliding (the tank also has a 3/4 ply layer on the bottom). We used the carts to lift the tank to the height of the stand and slid it in through the doors.

We had 10 people for the push into the house which made it super easy.

 

[Psirex]

My back hurts just at the thought of having to move it.....

posted using electrical charges

 

[tkeracer619]

Fortunately my back already hurt so I'm no worse off! :lol:

Saturday night my entire body felt like a sprained ankle. Getting up Sunday morning wasn't fun.

 

[BigBlueTang]

Look!
It's me!
Can't wait to help you out some more if you need it
Had a blast moving it, especially with you chasing me with that crab....:lolspin:

 

[tkeracer619]

Look!
It's me!
Can't wait to help you out some more if you need it
Had a blast moving it, especially with you chasing me with that crab....:lolspin:

I'm sure there are a few things you can help out with in the future, thanks for the help, it was major!

So... Eric (the guy who owned the tank before, thanks for selling me the tank dude!) was giving Atul crap for a good hour about this huge crab that lived in the sump. Jokingly reminding him ever 3 minutes it was in there as he cleaned it out. I had actually seen it 2 weeks prior when I came to check the tank out but played along. By the end of it Atul was sure we were messing with him and was no longer nervous that there was a rather large crab ready for a little pinch. We simply didn't find it until I emptied all the sand from the sump. I said "Hey Atul, check this out!", picked the crab up by the backside, and chased him around for a little bit. Of course the crab had two fully extended pinchers out. It was a good laugh.

The crab (and Atul) were unharmed. Again, thanks for the help bud, I appreciate it!

Kalgra was another RC member that helped me out. He was in charge of driving the livestock around to various places while the rest of us prepped the tank for moving off its stand. He also pulled a pro move by getting my Jeep under a parking deck when it started to hail! Many thanks to you as well Kris!